The ‘institutional’ discrimination of science

Pic: male and female door handles at UCL’s Medwar building (old anatomy building) The Guardian asked me what I thought about a paper published in PNAS last week on the causes of women’s under-representation in science. This was my response. For a more detailed overview of the paper, head to Gwyneth Dickey Zakaib’s piece in … Continue reading »

Studying the politics of online science

This ‘women science blogging revolution‘ has really been amazing to watch unfold. From Kate Clancy’s initial call to arms to Christie Wilcox’s forthright ‘Bring it‘ (as well as David Dobbs ‘Sister, you kicked some ass’ and Stephanie Zvan’s ‘But…’), and much, much more. I thought I’d contribute by sharing a bit of recent empirical research … Continue reading »

A bit of Victoriana

Everyone loves a bit of Victoriana at Christmas, so I thought I’d dig out some of my notes on children’s science books in the 19th century. (preface of John Henry Pepper’s Playbook, 1860, via googlebooks clip) The 19th century was the age of professionalisation of science. The word “scientist” wasn’t coined until 1833 [EDIT: or … Continue reading »

Finding the lost women of science

You might have read Richard Holmes’ article in the Observer this weekend on the “lost” women of Victorian Science. As several people pointed out, these people weren’t “lost” to all of us. Anyone with an interest in Victorian popular science will have heard of at least some of these names already. But that doesn’t mean … Continue reading »

Does my brain look big in this?

According to an oft-cited paper by Marcel LaFollette, a 1926 magazine once introduced an eminent medical researcher as a woman whose mahogany furniture “gleams”. From the same study, but a 1950 magazine, a senior figure in the Atomic Energy Commission was praised for sewing her own clothes. Later, via Dorothy Nelkin, Maria Mayer (Nobel physics … Continue reading »